Skeletons
by ArtificialAorta
Summary: Sometimes you just have to confront the skeletons in your closet before you can move forward. Sometimes it's someone else's skeleton.


**Character/Relationships**: Teddy Lupin, Lily Luna Potter, past Remus/Sirius and past Teddy/ Victoire

**Warnings**: contains a little strong language, including a word that may be offensive and homophobic

**A/N**: My second drabble for Harry Potter Last Author Standing.

**Prompt**: Leather

* * *

Cigarette smoke, musky cologne, oil, old leather and a little canine. _That's_ what his father smelled like. Teddy Lupin knew this because when he was little, Uncle Harry had given him a box of Remus Lupin's things that had been hidden away at Grimmauld Place. There were letters to and from his mum, pictures of his father's life, notes on cartography and secrets about Hogwarts. But at the very bottom, there was an old leather jacket.

After nightmares or if there was too much thunder, Teddy would take the jacket out from the box under his bed, wrap it around himself and just inhale. He'd imagine all the stories of the jacket his father would tell of it. How he wore it on his missions for the Order. How the jacket helped him gain werewolf confidence during the war. How his mum saw dad in it and instantly fell in love.

As he got older, he became more careful with the leather jacket in order to preserve it's soothing smell. No one knew about the jacket (except maybe Lily who he had shared the secret with one day when James and Albus were particularly mean about her security blanket).

That old leather jacket represented everything his father was. So one day when Teddy had tried to charm it in order to strengthen the smell and instead found a charmed pocket over the breast, all his childhood dreams were ruined. Teddy angrily threw the jacket in the back of his closet to be forgotten.

* * *

"He's not at all handsome. Dumb too. Probably related to a troll or something. Don't know why she's so obsessed with him." Lily babbled as she rifled through Teddy's kitchen. Victoire had left Ted for another bloke about a week ago and the Potters had 'covertly' sent Lily over to cheer him up.

Teddy chuckled quietly but his eyes widened when he noticed Lily attempting to grab something out of her reach, shifting a dodgy shelf in the process.

"Be careful-"

The warning was useless. As soon as it was out of his mouth, the shelf fell, causing its contents to spill on top of Lily. Her red hair and freckles were covered in flour, corn flakes and sticky goo that Teddy didn't want to guess the origins of.

"You should get that fixed." Lily observed unamused but after a moment, the two burst out laughing until Teddy was able to stop long enough to spell the mess away.

Realizing it was best to stay away from the kitchen, Lily decided to start cleaning out all remnants of Victoire from the flat. Teddy watched in a mixture of amusement and horror as she tore though the flat, eventually reaching his closet. After some riffling, she came back out with a familiar item in her hand.

"Why is this here?" she asked a little confused at the lack of care that had befallen what she remembered as Remus Lupin's cherished leather jacket. Teddy felt his stomach drop and a lump form in his throat when she reached for a picture and some parchment half stuffed into one of the pockets. It only took her a moment to figure out the obvious (and rather steamy) subject matter of the letter addressed to 'Padfoot' and affectionately signed 'Moony'. It took even less time to realize the picture showed Sirius Black comfortably wearing the jacket while giving Remus a kiss.

"Oh, Teddy. I-" she didn't appear to be too surprised as she gave him a sympathetic look.

"You knew about them?"

"I found some letters at Grimmauld and when I asked dad he- he asked me not to tell you. He wasn't sure how you'd react."

"He didn't know how I would react to my dad being a big fag? Or to the fact I've been clinging to his _boyfriend's_ jacket, thinking it was his!" accused Teddy as his hair turned a fiery red.

"Look if it's the gay thing that's bothering you…well I mean it's not really a big deal. Loads of people are gay-"

"It's not that!" insisted Teddy, as he took a moment to collect himself. After he was able to stop the oncoming tears, he took a breath and continued. "That bloody jacket _was_ my father all those years. I…I built all my stories about him from that stupid jacket and now I know that it was all a fucking lie! _He_ was a fucking lie."

"Well, it was obviously important to him if he kept it all those years. I know you must feel betrayed about all this but it shouldn't rot in the back of your closet. It's insulting. To both of them." Lily reasoned, offering the jacket innocently. With a growl, Teddy grabbed it in an attempt to keep her quiet. He didn't want to talk any more about the subject because he didn't want to break down.

* * *

A few weeks later, Teddy went to bed wearing Sirius Black's jacket. He inhaled the fading oil, cologne, leather and canine scent and realized that it must have been the same smell that soothed his father on bad days. Somehow, he felt closer to his father than he ever had before. Maybe Remus never wore the jacket on wild missions or maybe he didn't smell like motorcycle oil but he was still Teddy's father and this was probably as close as he'd ever get to the mysterious man.

And for now, that was all right.


End file.
